Ground rodding a Talking House V unit

I'm assuming you have connected the CB whip to the "wire" antenna connection, not the F connector. The wire from that point to the CB whip should be as short as possible as the tuner wants to see about 8 feet of antenna.

Keep the output selector set for the "wire" antenna connection not the external ATU connection.

If you can attach to the "ground pin" of the AC outlet that would be one possibility as the Talking House picks up its ground there.

Others have simply grounded to the chassis by screwing an F connector into the ATU connector on the rear of the unit. A wire can be attached to the shell of the connector or if it has a stub of coax just ground the shield only.

If you can, lay out a few radials, 6 to 12 radials at least 10 to 15 feet long. The ground rod itself won't do much.

Yeppers, connected the whip to the auto tune antenna port the wire antenna typically goes on.

Added a bit longer piece of coax when I took it outside. Probably 18 inches or less.

Based on that, what should the be done to do the chasis ground? Achieve ground through that coax port intended for the external ATU? I have F connector and short piece of coax from the indoor test.

You say to "ground the shield only" on the coax... I take it the shield is the copper I see under the vinyl/PVC/plastic outside protector that is before you get to the big white insulator sleeve?

I'll run outside and try what I just described now. 🙂

Can't ground on the internal wire ATU port as the transmitter cannot tune with the extra cable length. Throws ERR after trying for a while.

"6 to 12 radials at least 10 to 15 feet long."

I don't have space where the testing is going on to run radials. Might try 6 - 8 shorter ones in the limited space to see if any difference.

The greenhouse building is 20ft x 10ft roughly. Thinking I have other issues since the roofing is a fabric new age material that has metal (I believe aluminum) wove within).

Yes, use the copper braid just under the outside jacket. Make sure the antenna selector is set for the "wire" connection not the ATU connection.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Can't ground on the internal wire ATU port". The ATU port (F connector) is for the external antenna tuner. The wire port, not the F connector, uses the internal tuner.

Any radial would probably be better than none. If you have the Talking House plugged into a power strip with several outlets, just plug in a bunch of 3-wire extension cords and stretch them out for radials. The ground wire in each will be common to the Talking House ground.

Maybe not the best solution but for a quick try it may do something.

Loosen the cover screw near the internal antenna stub and attach a ground wire there, tighten screw. The case is the same ground as the F connector ground and power supply ground.

RFB

@RFB,

Any idea of what the case/chasis ground will actually do?

Will that function as a normal ground typically would? Should there be an improvement in signal with the chasis ground?

This ground is in addition to the electrical ground in the power transformer as we are still running grid power out there.

"Any idea of what the case/chasis ground will actually do?"

I pounded in an 8' ground rod 2 days ago to replace the 3' copper pipe. With my talking house (model II), the extra ground connection (to either ground rod) make no appreciable difference in signal strength.

I did get a noticeable improvement when I touched my AM longwire receive antenna to the ground rod wire. I guess it was acting like a ground radial as it is only 10-20' off the ground (and lower than the antenna). For the record, I am using an this loading coil instead of the internal one.

TH III with loading coil

"Any idea of what the case/chasis ground will actually do?"

Nothing but provide a better pathway for static and lighting since it will be outdoors.

As mentioned by others and me and also buried in the thread abyss, the TH internal ATU function will not tune to elaborate antenna systems because it is designed to see primarily a simple wire, or the whip, but with no elaborate ground system.

However throw it to external ATU mode and use the proper ATU unit with it, ground mounted about 1 meter or less over an elaborate ground system and it will perform very well.

"Will that function as a normal ground typically would? Should there be an improvement in signal with the chassis ground?"

There won't be any signal increase as nothing is being done to the radiating output or radiator. It is only adding more pathway for lightning and static discharge in an outdoor setting.

In either case..ie for improved antenna performance and lightning protection, a nice pathway to dirt is a heck of a lot better than having that lightning coming down your thin tiny power cable and/or audio line and into your studio. Lightning can split or cook a tree, power pole, melt HV high tension lines, imagine what it would do to that thin power supply cable or audio line.

RFB

"For the record, I am using this loading coil instead of the internal one."

Try adding a variable cap across that arrangement for fine peak tuning. What would also help is not going underneath that window like that, but if your testing and that whole arrangement will be in an outdoor setup, your on the right track.

Take note that some might squabble at your external coil arrangement using the F connector port on that transmitter and as being out of compliance or void the certification of the transmitter. BS!! If it were the case that the external ATU from RS is only to be used, then that thing would have a special type of connection instead of the common easily replaceable F connector on BOTH the TX and external ATU.

FCC rules clearly state about certified transmitters must have a special non-typical or off the shelf type connectors or permanently attached antennas.

RFB

So I drove a 6ft piece of rebar into wet and frozen for weeks soil a good 5ft.

Used a piece of 16 gauge speaker cable to run a wire from a screw on the Talking House Chasis next to the wire antenna connector screw terminal.

Attached the speaker wire to the rebar by stripping 6 inches of the wire, wrapping it around the rebar and duct taping it for now.

Sound sufficient? No change in signal or anything else from doing this. Purely for the electric discharge ground.

"Sound sufficient? No change in signal or anything else from doing this. Purely for the electric discharge ground."